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Jose Antonio Reyes of Arsenal looks up at the Ajax supporters during the UEFA Champions League, group B, match between Ajax and Arsenal at the Amst...
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - SEPTEMBER 27: Jose Antonio Reyes of Arsenal looks up at the Ajax supporters during the UEFA Champions League, group B, match between Ajax and Arsenal at the Amsterdam Arena. September 27, 2005 in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Club to name stadium after ex-Gunner

DailyCannon
DailyCannon

Utrera has approved plans to rename its municipal stadium after former Arsenal forward José Antonio Reyes, seven years after his death in a traffic accident.

Jose Antonio Reyes of Arsenal in action during the Barclays Premiership match between Arsenal and Middlesbrough at Highbury on January 14, 2006 in London, England.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Utrera is to rename its main municipal stadium after former Arsenal forward José Antonio Reyes, seven years after his death in a traffic accident.

The plenary session of Seville City Council unanimously approved the decision to rename the current Municipal Stadium of Vistalegre as the José Antonio Reyes Calderón Municipal Stadium, ensuring the former player’s name remains permanently attached to the town where he was born.

The measure was approved during the ordinary session for April and will also involve updating the municipal inventory, as well as installing an identification plaque at the stadium.

The local authority also plans to hold a tribute in memory of Reyes, with relatives and people close to the former footballer expected to attend.

Utrera pays trib­ute to José Ant­o­nio Reyes The former green mid­fielder, who died in a traffic acci­dent in 2019, will give his name to the Vistalegre Muni­cipal Sta­dium in the town José Antonio Reyes kisses the shield of Córdoba CF during his presentation with the club at the Arcángel, in 2018. Diario Cordoba M.H. Córdoba 9 May 2026 The fig­ure of José Ant­o­nio Reyes will remain forever linked to Utrera. The Plen­ary ses­sion of the Seville City Coun­cil unan­im­ously approved that the cur­rent Muni­cipal Sta­dium of Vistalegre in the city be offi­cially renamed the José Ant­o­nio Reyes Calderón Muni­cipal Sta­dium, in memory of the former Córdoba CF foot­baller - among many other clubs - who died in 2019 in a traffic acci­dent. The meas­ure went ahead dur­ing the ordin­ary ses­sion cor­res­pond­ing to the month of April and will mean that the Utrera attacker's name will be per­man­ently asso­ci­ated with the main sports venue in the town that saw him born. The agree­ment also con­tem­plates the updat­ing of the denom­in­a­tion in the muni­cipal invent­ory and the install­a­tion of an iden­ti­fic­a­tion plate in the sta­dium. In addi­tion to the name change A.J. González in the enclos­ure, the local con­sist­ory plans to organ­ize an insti­tu­tional act of trib­ute in memory of the foot­baller, with the pres­ence of rel­at­ives and people close to Reyes. The former Sevil­lian player left an extens­ive career in pro­fes­sional foot­ball, with a stint at some of the most import­ant clubs on the national and inter­na­tional scene. Trained at Sevilla's youth academy, he spent two spells at the team from Seville, where he won a Copa del Rey and three Europa League titles. He also defen­ded the shirts of Arsenal, Real Mad­rid, Atlético de Mad­rid, Ben­fica, Espanyol and Extremadura - his last club -, among other teams. Córdoba CF also appeared on that tour, which they reached in the winter mar­ket of the 2017-2018 sea­son, in one of the most mem­or­able cam­paigns of the recent Blan­quiverde stage. Then, at the age of 34 and after remain­ing without a team dur­ing the first half of the course, Reyes landed at the Archangel to rein­force a team immersed in the full fight for per­man­ence. With the Cor­doba shirt, the one known as The Magi­cian of Utrera played 17 offi­cial matches, ten of them as a starter, and scored a goal in that second round marked by the reac­tion of the Caliphate team - cham­pioned by the winter addi­tions, above all - and the sub­sequent agon­iz­ing sal­va­tion achieved under the dir­ec­tion of the Mad­rid coach José Ramón San­doval.
M.H. Córdoba 9 May 2026

For Arsenal, Reyes remains an important part of the club’s modern history. He joined from Sevilla, where he had come through the academy, and was part of the Invincibles squad that won the Premier League unbeaten in 2003/04. He also won the FA Cup.

His wider career took in some of the biggest clubs in Spain and Europe, including Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Benfica, Espanyol, Extremadura and Córdoba CF.

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